About the Conference

We have created an official statement which was submitted to the Public Consultation of the European Commission on May 29th, 2017. Read here about the developments following from the public consultation.

We are launching a campaign to protect Whistleblowers and raise awareness around the topic in Fall 2017. If you want to join our campaigning team, please contact us.

The European Anti-Corruption Youth Conference (EACYC2017)on Whistleblower Protection will bring together 30 young Europeans interested and experienced in the topic of Whistleblowing and eager to change the prevalent insufficiencies in whistleblower protection in Europe. Anti Corruption International is looking forward to hosting experts and young people from all across Europe for this 3-day event in the city of Tübingen, Germany on May 27th-29th.

We believe that the younger generation can and should demand a Europe with strong whistleblower rights. A Europe without fear of disproportionate prosecution for the whistleblower. Therefore, we aim to provide young activists from Europe with the tools and the opportunity to participate in the creation of a proposal for an EU-wide whistleblowing law and to develop an awareness creating campaign for whistleblower rights in Europe.

Provide the participants with enough knowledge in the subject matter to work with recommendations on Whistleblower Protection and to assess existing laws across Europe as well as the EU-Directive draft proposed by the Green/EFA-group.

To draft, debate and agree on an official statement directed towards Commissioner Vera Jourová (European Commission, DG Justice) who has initiated the public consultation to assess the possibility for an EU-law

Learn how to plan and implement an online campaign that focuses on addressing the European young to understand the importance of Whistleblowing and demand progressive and effective Whistleblower Protection from their own governments and the EU.

Build up a network of interested and engaged individuals from all over Europe, who will have the opportunity to stay involved on the topic, once the conference is over, by having the skills to be able to execute the campaign

A combination of thematic workshops and public talks during the first two days of the conference will lay the foundation for the participants, to be able to offer suggests on how to create a progressive legislation on whistleblower protection for the European Union. This statement will be developed during Parliament Day on the third day of the conference, where Members of the European Parliament and a representative of the European Commission will give the participants insight into the policy making process on the EU-level. Participants will debate and adopt legislation in a plenary session. The outcome of the conference will feed directly into the impact assessment of the EC and therefore plays an important role in communicating the voice of young Europeans to the EC.

The further outcome of the conference will be a campaign that will be selected from several campaign ideas developed by the participants during a 4-hour social innovation workshop on day 2. Anti Corruption International, together with its partners and interested organizations from around Europe, will implement this campaign together to create awareness and further build up the momentum for whistleblower protection in Europe.

Whistleblower rights in Europe are still inferior to the benefits whistleblowing provides European society with. The disclosure of information (about criminal activities) can prevent human rights violations, stop acts of corruption and fraud, as well as uphold the rule of law. However, in most European countries, no central whistleblower law exists and to a potential whistleblower it is difficult to predict what personal consequences might result from the act of blowing the whistle. According to Transparency International (2013)[1] only four countries in Europe had sufficient whistleblowing laws (UK, Romania, Slovenia, Luxembourg). In 2014, Ireland adopted a law which is rated among the bests in Europe, being built on the experience of other successful whistleblower protection acts, amongst them South Africa, Canada, Australia and the UK. All other countries have only partial provisions implemented or have put significant obstacles towards the act of whistleblowing.

We believe that the youth can demand a Europe with strong whistleblower rights and without fear of disproportionate prosecution for the whistleblower. Therefore, we aim to provide young activists from Europe with the tools and the opportunity to participate in the creation of a proposal for an EU-wide whistleblowing law and further campaigning for whistleblower rights in Europe.

Last year, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament presented a EU-draft-directive on Whistleblowing, which underwent a public feedback process later in 2016 and was handed over to the European Commission in the end of 2016. The EC is currently doing an impact assessment. The political process for a better Whistleblower Protection and common standards is therefore on the way, however, the public momentum built around this topic is still quite low. Our aim for the conference and the youth participating is to build a campaign, which will contribute to change this and establish whistleblowing as effective and appreciated tool of democratic societies in Europe.

If you match the above criteria, we encourage you to submit your application. There are still open places. We accept applications until the start of the conference.

If you are from outside Tübingen, the participation fee will be 75 EUR and cover accommodation, food and all conference costs.

If you are from Tübingen, you can benefit from a reduced conference fee of 40 EUR (incl. food) or even 10 EUR (without food). We encourage you to sign up as this is a unique opportunity to meet experts and contribute to European legislation.

The conference will take place in the Southern German city of Tübingen. It is one of the oldest university cities in Germany, and it is home to the Global Ethic Institute. Some of our workshops and plenary sessions will take place in the Institute’s premises, while the rest is held at Tübingen University. Everything is within walking distance of the programme venues.

Half of the participants will be hosted by local students, the other half will reside in a guesthouse/inn called Gasthaus Lamm.

Accommodation and meals are included in the participation fee of 75 EUR. Unfortunately, we do not have available funds to help subsidise your travel arrangements. Upon notification of your participation, we will ask you to transfer the participation fee to our bank account.

Tübingen has a train station which is operated by Deutsche Bahn. There is also an omnibus terminal and a direct bus connection to Stuttgart Airport (50 min).

Summit venue

The Team Behind EACYC2017

Felix is a Master of International Affairs student at Hertie School of Governance and received his Bachelor Degree in International Business Administration from the University of Tübingen. He is one of the co-founders of Anti Corruption International and has been conducting research on the topic of Whistleblowing for a year and a half.

Dina is Norwegian and has a bachelor in political science. (During her studies, she participated in organizing the worlds biggest student festival (ISFiT) where ACI was founded, wrote an extensive report on Norwegian business opportunities in Ecuador, and worked with educational quality for her university, NTNU.) After graduating, she has worked at the Norwegian immigration authorities, but is currently studying art in Denmark. She believes increasing ones creativity is beneficial for innovation and problem solving in all areas – also within politics. Ultimately, she wants to work with sustainable consulting and CSR.

Maria is a globally networked youth leader with a passion for good governance, social change, and international relations. Having worked both in Canada and Europe, she has several years of cross-cultural and inter-sector professional experience and she is actively involved in the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers community and the International Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Initiative. Maria holds a Master of Arts in Public and International Affairs and a Bachelor of Social Sciences in International Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Ottawa, and she is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Slovak and Czech.

Johanne has a bachelor degree in political sciences from the University of Oslo and is currently doing her master’s degree in European politics at NTNU Trondheim. Her knowledge about the European political and economic system and her background as a journalist in a student newspaper comes to great use during her current internship at ACI Berlin, and especially in the work towards the EACYC on Whistleblowing. She is passionate about politics and transparency and is very excited about the conference voicing our generation’s demand for an extensive law for whistleblower protection.

Krystyna is Ukrainian and holds a Master in Public Administration from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyonand. She is currently doing her PhD in the field of Corruption in Education. She has several years of experience in managing large-scale projects within the Council of Europe in the field of education and human rights issues.

Olga is 23 years old and from Skopje, Macedonia. She finished her master’s degree in Management of Human Resources, and is currently working within the SME sector. She is founder of a national chapter of ACI in Macedonia, and she is actively engaged in the NGO sector, both internationally and locally. She was elected to be ACI’s Vice-President being in charge of finding ways to engage young woman in the fight against corruption.

Carola is 22 years old and is studying Sociology and Business studies in Tübingen, Germany. Prior to her studies, she committed to a year of voluntary service in the Philippines. Carola has been a member of ACI for one and a half year now and organized several events in and around Tübingen.

Nikolaus is 21, studying Ethnology and doing a minor in Palaeoanthropology, in Tübingen, Germany. Nikolaus joined ACI in October 2015, hoping to contribute to more transparency in Germany and beyond. Growing up in Beijing, China, and travelling after graduating high school showed him that a lack of transparency, oversight and a functioning judiciary are either catalysts or symptoms of corruption in state and economic apparatus. Over the years the high-profile revalations (some more surprising than others) through the likes of Manning, Snowden and the Panama Papers, and other cases in Europe, made it clear that there was a need for change in politics, the economy and society.

The goals of the University of Tübingen’s Weltethos-Institut (Global Ethic Institute) are to promote awareness of moral issues among international economic and political actors and to facilitate meaningful intercultural dialogue.

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Anti Corruption International is a Global Movement of young people committed to eradicating corruption. Founded in 2015 we have sought to include young people in the campaign against the corruption globally.

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